Increasing usage of the Internet and Web servers accessible via the Internet requires systems and methods to control access to Web servers and Web-based services. Web servers are typically capable of generating and distributing multiple Web pages containing a variety of different information. Some of this information may be confidential or otherwise restricted to being accessed by a particular group of individuals. For example, certain Web page content may be inappropriate for children. Other Web page content may be authorized for access by officers and directors of a company, but not for hourly employees.
The permissions or authorizations associated with a particular user needs to be reliably communicated to various Web servers and other Web-based service or information providers such that Web-based content is limited in the manner desired by a parent, an employer, a teacher, or other individual or entity. Many existing Web-based systems do not provide an access control mechanism to enforce the permissions desired by a parent, employer, or teacher. Existing Web-based systems that do provide an access control mechanism do not necessarily provide a secure process for establishing and modifying the access permissions associated with children, employees, or students. Without a secure mechanism for setting, modifying and enforcing access permissions, certain individuals may be able to access unauthorized Web content or Web services.
In certain Web-based systems, data is exchanged using untrusted connections. For example, these untrusted connections may include unsecure connections to the Internet and/or connections to one or more servers accessible via the Internet. Another example of an untrusted connection is a connection to a Web-server in which the identity and/or privileges of the user establishing the connection have not been verified. Thus, the Web-server cannot be certain that the user establishing the connection is authorized to perform the requested functions or retrieve the requested information.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a mechanism for securely defining user permissions and controlling the user's access to Web-based content using those permissions.